10-year-old holds fundraiser for boy fighting cancer

MERCER, Tenn. — A fundraiser is being held at a West Tennessee restaurant, and it is all in support of a little boy who is battling cancer.

Papa Daddy’s in Mercer is having a curbside fundraiser in hopes of helping a boy named Clayton Pinner, who is battling cancer.

The one who is organizing this fundraiser is 10-year-old Sophie McMahan.

“We were told he wasn’t doing well, so we wanted to raise some more for his family,” McMahan said.

McMahan says she doesn’t know Pinner at all and learned about his story on Facebook. She says she just likes to give others a helping hand, especially during a time of need and uncertainty.

“My mom knows his mom on Facebook, and she said that he came out of St. Jude, and now he has been diagnosed with leukemia again and had to go back,” McMahan said.

Angie Upton — who is the owner of Papa Daddy’s and is McMahan’s grandmother — says she is touched by what her granddaughter is doing to help someone else.

“God is using our children, and I was so proud to see Sophie be obedient and to know that he is calling on her to be assertive at such a young age, and that just blesses me. I couldn’t want anything more than that,” Upton said.

Funds are being raised by t-shirts designed by McMahan that read “#pinnerstrong.”

They will be sold, as well as spaghetti and desserts. Proceeds will go to the Pinner family.

“She wanted to have those shirts made and give the money to Clayton. Of course we just jumped on board with her, and so here we are. Just all excited and ready to let God do his thing,” Upton said.

“God commands others to love other as he loves us, so I just wanted to do something to make God proud of me,” McMahan said.

If you’re interested in attending the fundraiser, it’s going until 8 p.m. Thursday at Papa Daddy’s in Mercer.